Jessica Pavone String Ensemble at The Rotunda

Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to present the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble, featuring the violist as both composer and performer.

Being an instrumentalist and composer, the tactile experience and use of the body while creating sound has always been a theme that Jessica Pavone has explored in her compositions. This is most notable in her solo viola music, created exclusively for performance by her. The indeterminate pieces stem from years of concentrated long tone practice and an interest in repetition, song form, sympathetic vibration and the physicality of playing her somewhat larger-than-comfortable instrument. For the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble, Pavone has merged these two distinct modalities by creating an ensemble she both composes for and performs in. These pieces continue to explore themes of her solo music, while also integrating a deeper understanding of the affects sound has on the listener. The way sound affects the body and psyche have always been an interest and while her discoveries in this area have been primarily through direct experience, she plans to further understand responses through sound with this ensemble....

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Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to present the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble, featuring the violist as both composer and performer.

Being an instrumentalist and composer, the tactile experience and use of the body while creating sound has always been a theme that Jessica Pavone has explored in her compositions. This is most notable in her solo viola music, created exclusively for performance by her. The indeterminate pieces stem from years of concentrated long tone practice and an interest in repetition, song form, sympathetic vibration and the physicality of playing her somewhat larger-than-comfortable instrument. For the Jessica Pavone String Ensemble, Pavone has merged these two distinct modalities by creating an ensemble she both composes for and performs in. These pieces continue to explore themes of her solo music, while also integrating a deeper understanding of the affects sound has on the listener. The way sound affects the body and psyche have always been an interest and while her discoveries in this area have been primarily through direct experience, she plans to further understand responses through sound with this ensemble.

The Wire magazine praised Pavone’s “ability to transform a naked tonal gesture into something special,” and The New York Times described her music as "distinct and beguiling...its core is steely, and its execution clear."

Jessica Pavone has performed in countless improvisation, avant jazz, experimental, folk, soul, and chamber ensembles since moving to NYC in 2000. She has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, performing in venues ranging from international music festivals, universities, and art galleries, to community centers and basements. Her music has premiered in venues in New York City such as, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and The Kitchen, and at the Klangbad Festival in Sheer, Germany. In 2011 she was featured in NPR’s “The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40.” She has received grants and commissions from the Aaron Copland Recording Fund, the American Music Center, New Music USA for her collaboration with choreographer Anna Sperber, The Kitchen, MATA, The Jerome Foundation, The Tri-Centric Foundation, Experiments in Opera, and the chamber music collective Till By Turning.

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